Mound Depth A Strength As Spring Dawns
01/30/18 | Baseball, @GoDucksMoseley
The Oregon baseball team recently began practice for the 2018 season, in which the pitching staff won't feature David Peterson but projects to enjoy enviable depth.
On an Oregon baseball team that scuffled to a 30-25 record in 2017, left-handed pitcher David Peterson was the bright spot.
Before being drafted with the 20th pick in the first round last June, Peterson went 11-4 with a 2.51 ERA and school-record 140 strikeouts for the Ducks, earning consensus all-American honors. With Peterson now preparing to progress up the New York Mets' organizational ladder, UO coach George Horton expects to field a more balanced pitching staff this season, for which practices began Friday.
Junior right-hander Matt Mercer has the makings of a Friday night guy, and junior lefty Cole Stringer has experience in the weekend rotation too. Sophomore James Acuna pitched himself into the mix for a weekend spot during fall workouts, and the Ducks welcomed a freshman class that could provide a bridge to the back end of the bullpen: junior Parker Kelly, sophomore Ryne Nelson and preseason all-American Kenyon Yovan, a finalist for NCBWA Stopper of the Year as a freshman last spring.
"We look like we'll be able to get off to a good start on the mound," Horton said. "And we've got some good young guys that we think will fill the gaps and get us to the back end of the bullpen."
After going 6-7 with a 3.16 ERA as a rotation fixture last season, Mercer turned heads in the Cape Cod League during the summer; Stringer (above) predicted that Mercer would be Oregon's Friday night guy, and a worthy successor to Peterson. But the size 12.5 spikes Peterson wore won't be filled in his absence by any one player, Mercer said.
"There's a lot of guys who have pitched well," Mercer said. "Stringer, Yovan, Acuna – they've all proved that they can be a Friday night starter in the Pac. They've all pitched really well, and it's pushed me to be as good as I can be. That's what makes a good team: a lot of competition within the team, pushing everybody to be better."
Mercer, for the record, wears a size 12 spike. It's not hard to imagine him filling Peterson's shoes, figuratively if not literally. Especially after hearing Stringer rave about him.
"You hear what he did in the summer in the Cape, and then being back around him, he's a dude," Stringer said. "He's gonna be our Friday guy. He's gonna be that guy that we need to get a win from, and he's gonna win a lot of games for us this year."
After holding down a rotation spot throughout last spring, Mercer went 4-1 with a 2.64 ERA and 31 strikeouts in five Cape Cod League starts over the summer. Thanks to his work there and with Driveline Baseball in his home state of Washington, Mercer said he's improved his fastball command, and added late movement to a slider he is throwing for strikes with more consistency.
Mercer is now honing all of that under UO pitching coach Jason Dietrich, who helped Peterson reach his potential last season during his first spring on staff with the Ducks.
"I think I've figured out a lot of things that I kind of had bits and pieces to, last year, and put everything together," Mercer said. "I saw good results I'm hoping to bring into this year. … If I can get all my tools put together, I can hopefully have a year like Petey had."
The Ducks would certainly take that kind of season from Mercer, but they're not putting any pressure on him to be the next Peterson. That owes in part to what Horton considers solid depth up and down the staff.
Acuna made all but two of his 19 appearances last season in relief, but has added velocity to his fastball and is also commanding his changeup and breaking ball. Stringer made 11 starts in 2017, spending a stretch in the bullpen at midseason, and added weight over the offseason for the sake of improved stamina in 2018.
Horton has been impressed with freshman pitchers Hunter Breault, Cullen Kafka and Kolby Somers. He painted a picture of a more confident Kelly in a setup role this season, and Nelson is back in the bullpen mix after some promising flashes early in his freshman season.
The wild card is Yovan (above). The charismatic Beaverton native had 15 saves with 36 strikeouts in 32 innings last season, but could potentially transition from closer to starter as a sophomore.
"I've done both, and I enjoy both," Yovan said. "So we'll see what happens."
Yovan said he's building up his arm with the idea of needing stamina as a starter, and could always cut his workload back down if he returns to the bullpen. He's taking steps outside of practice to keep his arm healthy, given the extra work on the mound and also some reps at third base.
One thing he's not doing, Yovan said, is chasing the numbers he put up last season.
"That's in the past," he said. "I had a great year; this year, I haven't done anything yet. Hopefully I can go out there and continue what I did."
Whether that's as a closer or a starter remains to be seen, as does the entire makeup of the pitching staff, given the departure of a Peterson and the host of candidates to fill the open spots.
"That's a big responsibility for the starting pitchers, to fill David Peterson's shoes," Horton said. "But it doesn't necessarily have to be a guy who strikes out 20. A starting pitcher's job is to keep us in the game, and our job is to find a way to win."
